Slenderverse onshots
by past is today
Summary: Previously "Before things changed" I have decided that rather then posting all the slenderverse one shot requests I get separately I will post them here. Feel free to read and request. (Marble Hornets, everymanHYBRID, MLAnderson0 and Clear Lakes, more to be added as I get them)
1. Before things changed (MH)

Requested by didsomeonesaymarblehornets on tumblr: Something Jaylex.

This story takes place shortly before Alex called Jay to meet him at Rosswood and tries to shoot him and Jessica.

* * *

For the tenth time that day Jay dialed Alex's number. His fingers moved automatically to the numbers without him having to think about it, he was so used to this code. He held the phone to his ear as it rang, his grip loose with hopelessness. Alex never picked up, now it was nothing more than habit driving him to preform this ritual. He heard a click he assumed was the message machine and sighed ready to hang up.

"Hello?" Alex's voice came out of the phone's speaker. Jay was speechless for a minute. "Hello? Jay?" Alex asked.

"Yes!" Jay yelped snapping to attention even though he doubted Alex was anywhere nearby. "Sorry I didn't really expect you to pick up, it's been so long and I was…" He trailed off. Alex knew he had been worried, there was no need to say it. Jay was starting to wonder if Alex cared.

"I know you've been worried Jay, I'm sorry." Alex sighed a burst of static breath coming from the phone. "Just… things haven't been going well. I-I think I know what I need to do but…" He trailed off, Jay knew there were many things that could mean. It was dangerous, it was wrong, Alex didn't want to do it.

"What can I do to help Alex? You know you're not alone, you just need to ask and I'll help. I've been trying to even without you asking." Jay assured franticly. Alex gave a frustrated growl.

"I know and that's what got you into this mess! I wish you had never gotten involved in this! Then I wouldn't… I miss you." Alex said almost resignedly.

"I miss you too Alex." Jay replied quickly. "Where are you?"

"I'm at another shitty motel, where else?" Alex laughed humorlessly. "But… are you still where I asked you to wait? I want to come back for you now, I can't be alone anymore."

"Of course I am Alex, I trust you." Jay answered.

"I know." Alex whispered. Jay knew it must be his imagination that made Alex sound choked up. "I'll be there in a few hours." Alex hung up without saying goodbye but Jay was used to that. Alex hated goodbyes. Jay smiled stupidly at his phone, he was going to be seeing Alex again soon.

Oh shit he was going to be seeing Alex again soon and he hadn't shaved in weeks! Hadn't showered in days and the room he had been renting the past little while was a complete mess, he had so much to do! He quickly did a cursory clean of the hotel room and made sure he had enough food for both himself and Alex. He made a quick run to a nearby store to pick up some other groceries as well as some alcohol, because he knows Alex will need it.

Once that was done Jay had a long shower making sure he's clean and his face is smooth. As usual he looked like he hadn't slept in a month, but there's nothing to do about that and it's not far from the truth. Sighing he left the bathroom. Alex could be here any minute now but he wasn't yet so Jay took the time to do a little bit more cleaning waiting for Alex's call that he had arrived.

It came twenty minutes later. Jay went down to the front desk to meet him, leading the way back up to his hotel room. Alex was more hunched than last time Jay had seen him. He had lost weight and he looked as if he hadn't slept in even longer than Jay. Jay waited to say anything until they were both in the hotel room, relatively safe.

"You look like you've been through hell." Jay said hugging Alex carefully; Alex hugged back after a second.

"I think we both have." Alex sighed heavily resting his head against the side of Jay's tiredly.

"That's true." Jay murmured. "But I think you've been trying too hard to shelter me. I'm not the fragile little bird everyone seems to think I am. And if anything I'm a pretty fast runner." He ended jokingly and Alex chuckled.

"I know Jay, but that doesn't stop me wanting to protect you. But tonight… tonight I just need a distraction. Please, at least until the morning, let's pretend like nothing's wrong."

"Of course." Jay murmured pulling back and kissing Alex gently, they had gotten into the habit of this. They could be close to each other and no one else after all, they might as well be close in every way. "I bought some alcohol 'cause I knew you'd need it. Let me make us both drinks." Alex nodded and let go of Jay, letting him pour them both glasses of the stronger alcohol after all 'beer before liquor never sicker.' Alex went and sat on the edge of the bed rubbing his face with both hands tiredly.

Jay handed Alex a glass and crawled onto the double bed settling down comfortably propped on some pillows. Alex kicked off his shoes and did the same as Jay reached for the tv remote.

"This hotel actually has some good channels. Want to find a bad ghost hunting show and drink every time someone does something stupid or over reacts to nothing?" Jay asked grinning at Alex. It was one of their favorite pastimes, making fun at people who were pretending to be in the same position they were actually in.

"Sure thing?" Alex said grinning gratefully back at Jay. Jay slid closer to Alex, settling against his side as he clicked through the stations until they found one of the ghost hunting shows that always seemed to be playing in hotel rooms.

By the time the show was finished they were both drunk. Jay was giggling and Alex had gotten really affectionate. They missed seeing what the next show was going to be because Alex had started tickling Jay, it ended up in a giddy drunk wrestling match which Alex won (of course). Jay ended up pinned under Alex laughing madly as Alex grinned down at him triumphantly.

"Okay you win, now get off of me." Jay laughed pushing up against Alex's chest.

"Only if you'll get _on_ me." Alex purred huskily, smiling crookedly down at Jay.

"What do.. oh." Jay trailed of his eyes widening in delayed realization of what Alex meant. "Oh okay."

Hours later they lay together under the covers facing each other. Jay's arm was draped over Alex's waist, he was drifting to sleep happily to the sound of Alex's heavy breathing. He assumed that Alex was asleep until Alex started playing with his hair gently. Jay sighed softly but didn't wake up all the way.

"I'm sorry, I know what I hate to do but I don't like it." Alex whispered obviously believing Jay was fully asleep. Jay didn't let him know otherwise. "I know what they want now, they want me, I never told you my middle name but when you add it in my initials spell Ark. They've been trying to make you lead them to me.

"Why would they have been doing that if I couldn't hurt them somehow? If I didn't know something? But I didn't realize what it was until recently, I know how to stop the disease, I'm sorry." He shifted closer to Jay protectively.

Jay didn't have any idea what Alex meant or what he was talking about. How could he be the Ark? That didn't make sense, the Ark was a place. But it didn't matter, he trusted Alex to do what was right, whatever Alex did Jay would go along with that. If he wasn't so close to sleep he would tell Alex so, but he was just so comfortable and warm, and it had been so long since Alex had last been there with him Jay couldn't bring himself to wake up enough to respond.

* * *

A/N if you want to request something from me you can do so here or on my tumblr too-much-tea-stuff.


	2. At What Cost (CL and MH)

Request by sonofaghosthunter on tumblr: Jay is alive. But at what cost?

* * *

Jay woke up. Or maybe waking up wasn't the right word, it was more like he was surfacing. Shuffling out of a darkness he hadn't realized he was in but now didn't know how long he'd been in it.

What was the last thing he remembered? Alex, Alex with a gun and then… pain and then… the Operator… then darkness. Had he been hurt? He must have, so he had been unconscious, okay that was fine but then shouldn't he still be in pain? He couldn't have been unconscious for long enough to heal from a bullet wound could he?

He didn't feel pain, now that he thought about it he didn't feel much of anything. It was the first time he could remember when he hadn't been in any pain or discomfort. He sat up and there was no stiffness either even though he felt like he had been sleeping for years.

He got to his feet and his legs held them in a way they never had before. He felt like he could run forever, he looked up and there was a stretch of street in front of him. On impulse he started running. He expected to get out of breath quickly as he always did, the Operators sickness had done a number on his lungs but he didn't. His breaths kept coming even and slow as if he was sitting in his car listening to calming music.

Curiously he sped up, running full sprint down the road, his breath came faster now but rom excitement not exertions. He had dreamt about this, being able to run as fast and as far as he wanted without his legs hurting or getting out of breath.

He wasn't sure how long he ran but it didn't matter. He only stopped because his attention was stolen by the only unpleasant feeling he had had since he woke up. He was hungry. Okay that was fine, he could get something to eat. Looking around he noticed a grocery store. Good that was fine except he didn't have any money. Oh well it wouldn't be the first time he had had to shoplift something to eat.

He walked over to the store checking that his hood was up. It was so he walked in, there weren't many people there, two shoppers and a cashier, no one looked at him. He didn't mind, it was easier if they didn't know what he looked like so they couldn't track him down.

Walking to the back of the store he took down a jar of peanut butter, it would be a weird dinner but he was craving it. If he had to guess he would say it was because, even though he couldn't feel any pain from his legs, after so much exercise his muscles still needed protein. For good measure he went over to the produce section and grabbed an apple. Apples and peanut butter was a snack his mom used to give him when he was a kid so that would be less weird.

He walked out of the store again easily with his hands shoved in his sweater pockets to disguise the fact that there were full of other things. He walked around the block until he found a park. It was empty because it was dark and cloudy, probably late at night.

He sat down on one of the swings and took the jar of peanut butter out from his pocket and opened it. He propped it between his legs and took the apple out, wiping it on his sweater out of habit. He meant to take a bite of the apple and then use his fingers to scoop some of the peanut butter out of the jar so he could combine them but it didn't work.

When he tried to take a bite of the apple it disappeared. Or at least he thought it did, it took him a moment to realize that he could feel it inside himself. But not like he had swallowed it, more like it was slowly drifting through him towards the place his stomach was… or maybe should be. He gasped and instead of words a sort of static chitterling came out of his mouth. But now that he thought about it he hadn't felt his mouth open.

He lifted his hands to his face, his hands were gloved, he hadn't noticed that before. He tried to touch his face but it didn't work, instead it was a smooth surface, less like skin and more like the screen of a television. He even felt the slight static tingling he felt when he touched the screen of a tv when it was on.

"What?" he gasped, or tried to, what came out was the same static chattering. Curiously he reached down and dipped his hand into the jar of peanut butter, scooping out a glob. Shoot the gloves! Well they were ruined now. He lifted his hand close to his face and tried to open his mouth to lick the peanut butter of his fingers.

Instead he felt what felt like multiple tongues extend from his face and cleaned the peanut butter of his gloves, there was nothing left on them, they were completely clean. Well not ruined after all. Jay repeated the proses and this time he did his best to look down at the things that were coming out of his face.

They were blue, and they kept flickering like static. Well that wasn't normal or okay. He put down the jar of peanut butter and got up off the swing he walked over to a tree and sat down underneath that just as rain started to fall.

Alex had shot him hadn't he? Now Jay was willing to bet that it had been a fatal shot but somehow he hadn't died. He was still alive somehow but he didn't think he wanted to be. He lifted his hands and took of one of the gloves, his hands were made of the same blue static but it only lasted a few moments before it dissipated, crackling into the air. Quickly Jay ripped off the hood of his sweater and felt his head quickly doing the same thing his hand had. All of his clothes crumples as the energy residue that had been filling them escaped.

Jay didn't know how long it was before he woke up again. Feeling exactly the same way he had the first time except this time the only place there was pain was in his mind. He didn't want to live if this was the cost, he didn't even know _what_ he was.


	3. Kitties and Bunnies (EMH)

kikaitoofthezombies requested: HABIT teasing vince by making the cats pounce on a laser pointer pointed at him?

* * *

Habit laughed softly watching Pig chase the red dot on the floor cast by the laser pointer in Habit's hand. It was rare that Pig roused himself to play like this, he was such a fat cat.

Habit was doing his best to be quiet because Vinny had fallen asleep on the couch. Habit wanted Vinny sharp, so of course he needed to sleep, but Habit was getting bored now. He had entertained himself for a while playing with Isabel and then Pig, and now as Pig flopped over, Isabel again.

"Oh there it goes!" he explained softly flicking the light to the other side of the room and watching Isabel pivot, slip, and then right herself sprinting across the room. He winced when she ran into the wall with a thump but it wasn't because he was worried about her. She was made of rubber and he knew that perfectly well.

He glanced at Vinny to make sure he hadn't woken up. He hadn't even stirred, he must have been really tired, but at the same time, Habit was getting hella bored. Habit glanced back at the red dot which Isabel was jumping up the wall trying to reach and then back at Vinny. The dot, Vinny. Habit's smile grew wickedly.

He swiveled dramatically pointing the light at Vinny's stomach. It took Isabel a minute to figure out where the light went. When she turned and saw it, she dropped into a hunter's crouch. Her tail twitched and Habit jiggled the light enticingly. She pounced, bolting across the room and directly onto Vinny's stomach.

"Oof." Sounded Vinny sitting bolt upright and looking around franticly. Habit doubled over laughing. "What happened?" Vinny asked wildly.

Habit pointed the laser at Vinny's chest. "Wha-?" Vinny asked. Hwas answered half way through when Isabel rocketed into his chest again, knocking him back against the couch.

"Habit stop!" Vinny demanded pushing Isabel off of him, but she jumped right back up after the dot. Which was now on Vinny's cheek. She pawed at his beard meowing in irritation. When Vinny tried to move away and Habit kept the dot on him. "That is not nice stop it!" Vinny yelped. Isabel dug her claws into Vinny's shirt to avoid getting thrown off.

"Okay, okay!" Habit said taking his finger of the on button and holding up his hands. Isabel looked around franticly trying to locate where the red dot had gone. She was panting which meant it was time to stop anyway, because she was getting over stimulated. Once she realized that the dot was gone she flopped over.

"Can you… get her off me?" Vinny asked after a minute when Isabel didn't move.

"Nope." Habit said smiling fondly at them. "She's tired from playing. You just go back to sleep and let her sleep on you."

"Not until you are out of the room because I do not want another wake up call like that." Vinny snapped rubbing his face with his hands doing his best to not jar Isabel.

"Okay that's fine with me, I was bored anyway." Habit said getting up and strutting out of the room.

He stayed out for half an hour then snuck back in with his phone. Vinny was fast asleep again. So was Isabel, curled up peacefully on his stomach, purring softly as she was moved up and down from Vinny's breathing. Carefully Habit snuck closer and took a couple of pictures with the camera on his phone. This was just too cute to not to have a memento of.

He checked that the photos were good and then snuck back out of the room. Could he post this on twitter? Did he need to ask Vinny? Nahhhh he was going to post this on twitter, Vinny wouldn't mind. And if he did Habit didn't care.

Vinny had been working all day and Habit didn't even know what he was working on. Habit was playing with the laser pointer again, his new ginger cat ,Elizabeth was bumping around after the dot. She was still a kitten and clumsy. It was making Habit laugh and Habit laughing was making Vinny annoyed.

"Will you go play somewhere else?" Vinny asked touchily.

"What's the matter Vin? Finally developing an allergy to fun?" Habit joked pointing laser pointer at Vinny's foot. Elizabeth pounced and bit Vinny's toe. Vinny yelped.

"Why don't you ever play with the cats? You should it's relaxing and you're always so tense." Habit laughed making Elizabeth chase Vinny's feet as he tried to move them away.

"They're your cats!" Vinny objected. "Maybe I wouldn't be so tense if the world didn't always feel like it was ending around me."

"Hey we're in the same place and I still manage to have fun." Habit pointed out. "Do you not like cats?"

"Cats are fine." Vinny said, uncomfortably pulling his feet up onto the chair to get them away from over enthusiastic kitten teeth. "I prefer less pointy animals."

"Okay hang on!" Habit exclaimed getting an idea. "Play with her while I'm gone she needs tiring out!" Habit ordered handing Vinny the laser pointer before rushing out of the room. About ten minutes later he came back to find Vinny, still awkwardly moving the laser pointer around with one hand while he tried to keep working.

Habit deposited a bunny in Vinny's lap and took the laser pointer back.

"What?" Vinny asked, shocked.

"You said you preferred less pointy animals. That is a less pointy animal now chill out!" Habit pointed out, shoving the laser pointer in his pocket and picking up Elizabeth when she tried to investigate the bunny.

"Oh." Vinny said looking down at the small caramel coloured rabbit in his lap. It stared back up at him with big black eyes, hesitantly Vinny started petting it. The bunny lay down flat after a minute. "Okay this is fine."

"Good. I wanted to get an actual rabbit for a while now anyway. My human rabbits are great but just not quite as cute. You can name it and keep it if you want but I'm gonna cuddle it now and then."

"Okay." Vinny said turning his attention back to the computer screen as he kept petting the bunny absentmindedly. Elizabeth started squirming in Habit's grip so he took her out of the room. She was too young and the bunny too new for them to meet yet. "Thanks Habit." Vinny's words were so soft that Habit hardly heard them.

"No problem Vin." Habit said without looking back, then he left the room and closed the door so none of his cats could barge in and scare Vinny's new bunny.


	4. If You'll Go on a Date With Me (EMHMLA)

requested by a anon on tumblr: How bout a fic of Habit and Patrick going on a date and spending the whole time trying to out do each other and be the better one?"

* * *

Ayy Michael how're you doing?" asked a snarky multilayered voice.

Patrick rolled his eyes up when he heard Habit's voice coming from behind him. Patrick was in his house, Habit shouldn't be in here, but he wasn't surprised to find that he was.

"My name isn't Michael!" Patrick snapped, not bothering to turn around and face Habit. He was busy planning a murder.

"Nahh I know you're not. I'm just fucking with you Patrick." Habit said wandering around into Patrick's field of vision. "What'cha doing? I like your hat." Habit came over and leaned over Patrick's desk blocking the house layout he was studying.

"Habit." Partick complained leaning back in his chair away from Habit's face, which was now too close to his. "I'm planning a murder I need to plan this carefully." Patrick snapped unhappily. Habit scoffed and rolled over so he was half laying on his back on the table.

"Careful is for pansies!" Habit pouted.

"Ya well not all of us are demons who can skip out of a body the moment DNA evidence gets it stuck in jail." Patrick dryly pointed out, rolling his eyes again.

"Well I'm bored. Do you want the help of an immortal demon?" Habit asked grinning widely up at Patrick.

"You want to help me?" Patrick asked raising both his eyebrows.

"Yep. I'll help you get your murdering done quickly if…." Habit said and trailed off, flipping himself back onto his stomach and pushing himself up so their faces were inches apart again. Patrick refused to back down.

"If what?" Patrick asked, he felt like his eyebrows were about to lift off his face. Habit cackled.

"If you'll go on a date with me afterwards." Habit said grinning even wider. How did he do that? That smile was definitely too big for his face.

"Okay." Patrick said grinning back. This was a challenge more than anything and he knew that, but he also knew that they would both have a lot of fun with this.

"Alrighty then let's get going shall we?" Habit asked bouncing back up off the desk and half bowing to Patrick, mockingly holding out his arm as if he was asking a lady to dance.

"Yes let's." Patrick joked back, completely unfazed. "I need to kill Ashley Kinsley."

"Oh ya?" Habit asked raising one eyebrow. "What has she done to you."

"Nothing yet." Patrick scowled.

"Got it, time is weird." Habit said then snapped his fingers. Everything blinked out in a burst of warping static and then they were in a small room. Patrick could hear Ashley's voice outside of, what he assumed must be, the closet. He started forward snarling but Habit pulled him back so Patrick's back was pressed against Habit's chest. "She's not alone. Are you ready for the game?" Habit growled, Patrick grinned and nodded.

"Well then." Habit murmured and snapped his fingers again. This time an axe appeared in his hands and he offered it to Patrick. "Let's play." Patrick and Habit burst out of the closet. Immediately Patrick spotted Ashley and lunged at her while Habit leapt onto the biggest guy in the room, summoning a knife from nowhere.

Over an hour later the house was silent except Habit and Patrick's panting breaths.

Habit was covered in blood, Patrick had managed to keep it off his shirt for the most part, he hated stains. He looked Habit over appraisingly, he couldn't help appreciate the way Habit looked covered in blood. Even better than usual. Patrick wouldn't admit it though.

"You're sloppy." Patrick said instead.

"Well fuck you too." Habit scoffed grinning at Patrick in a way that made him uncomfortable. "But sometimes it's fun to get a bit messy don't you think?" He asked sidling up to Patrick, his eyes half lidded and his smile seductive.

"Don't you dare." Patrick croaked, his throat suddenly dry. "You'll get blood on this shirt and I hate stains." He was mildly surprised when Habit pulled back pouting.

"Okay." Habit said shrugging unhappily. "I guess I'm supposed to take you out for dinner first anyway huh?" Habit asked, his smile slowly returning.

"That's how it works." Patrick agreed grinning back.

"Well then let's hop to it!" Habit said. This time Patrick was prepared when Habit grabbed him and the world fuzzed out around them. When it came back in, they were both standing in a very nice looking restaurant. Patrick looked down at himself and realized he was wearing one of his favorite suits. Shaking his head exasperatedly he looked back at Habit.

"Really?" He asked sarcastically. "I'm going to be missing about a week when I get home aren't I?"

"You know how it works." Habit asked and held up two fingers to the waiter who came to seat them. He nodded and led them to a table. Once they were there Habit ordered wine for both of them. A very good kind Patrick couldn't help but notice when it arrived.

"I wouldn't have given you credit for good taste." Patrick said grinning mockingly and leaning forward on the table.

"I'm hundreds of years old, I've been around a few times. Have a bit more faith that I know a good thing when I come across it." If there had been any missing the flirtation, Habit cleared it up by lifting his glass to Patrick. Patrick wished he could claim he didn't blush.


	5. Bonding (emh)

Habit telling Vin theyre going to have bonding time and spending the whole day trying to get him to play games or something with him. Requested by a anon on tumblr

* * *

"Vinny guess what!?" Habit yipped bouncing into Vinny's bedroom while he pulled on his shirt.

"What?" Vinny asked without looking at Habit, pulling on his shirt. He was not actually interested. Not that he didn't care, whatever it was it was probably bad for him, so he cared, but he wasn't enthusiastic.

"We're bonding today!" Habit enthused. "I got a whole bunch of board games! I can't understand those video game things."

"Why do you want to bond?" Vinny asked staring at Habit suspiciously.

"Come onnnn Vinny we've been living together for months isn't it time we get to know each other better!?" Habit insisted. "Most of the board games have four players so I invited Firebrand over later. I could bring Patrick too, or Noah if you'd rather spend some more time with him."

"Or we can just not." Vinny suggested passively, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Nope this is happening." Habit said bouncing up off the edge of Vinny's bed where he had settled. "I have cupcakes in the oven."

"Fine." Vinny sighed, tiredly rubbing his forehead. "I don't care who you bring then."

"Okay Patrick it is." Habit said striding out of the room. He paused and stuck his head back through the door. "The cupcakes will be out of the oven and cool in about a half an hour. Want to help me decorate them? You know you do, that never stops being fun."

"Sure." Vinny agreed shrugging. He did like decorating cupcakes, Habit was right, that never stopped being fun.

Vinny followed Habit downstairs since there was nothing else to do. Habit puttered about the kitchen singing nonsense syllables. Now and then it resolved into words, but Vinny didn't pay attention opting to make himself scrambled eggs for breakfast instead. The smell of baking filled the room and Vinny found himself looking forward to the cupcakes. Habit was good at baking, no doubt these would be good.

A timer dinged and Habit shooed him out of the way, slipping on a pair of oven mitts, and taking the cupcakes out. Over the last few months Vinny had gotten used to the sight of Habit in a striped apron and oven mitts. At first he had thought it was ridiculous, but he could understand that Habit loved cooking.

Habit was good at what he called 'delayed gratification'. He would rather have nice homemade cupcakes that took a longer to make than bad store bought ones. Vinny finished eating his breakfast and then helped Habit do the dishes from the baking. He suspected if he didn't help now, he would end up doing it by himself later.

"Okay dokey let's start making up the icing!" Habit hummed happily. "What do you think? Regular icing? Chocolate? Butter cream?"

"I think just regular." Vinny commented. He didn't like butter cream very much, it was too rich for him.

"Half and half butter cream and regular." Habit suggested. "I like butter cream."

"That works." Vinny said and Habit handed him a bag of icing sugar.

"You do the regular 'cause it's easier. I'll do the butter cream." Vinny nodded and started mixing the icing, doing his best not to make it too watery. He wondered if Habit would want to do colours. Probably. That was part of the fun about decorating.

With that in mind Vinny divided the icing into smaller bowls. After a minute Habit carried over a few more small bowls of butter cream icing. He nodded in approval when he saw that Vinny had already divided his up.

"Time to get creative!" Habit laughed, grabbing a box of food colouring before he pulled out the green and threw it across the room laughing heartily.

"Green is not a creative colour!" Habit laughed and Vinny rolled his eyes.

"Okay Habit." He said in an overly patient voice. Habit grinned at him and they started to mix colours. Habit had pulled out a box of sprinkles and one of edible silver balls. Habit loved sprinkles.

Habit kept humming as they started decorating cupcake. Vinny recognized a couple of the songs but didn't join it.

"Look I made a bunny!" Habit exclaimed holding up a cupcake to show Vinny a white rabbit design surrounded by purple icing.

"That's really good Habit." Vinny complimented and Habit beamed proudly. He was like a weird, violent, five year old sometimes. Sometimes it was cute.

"I've had a lot of practice." Habit laughed using a single prong on a fork to give the rabbit a little purple eye.

About an hour later Habit left briefly and brought Patrick back with him. Patrick was looking a little rumpled, but better than Noah had the last time Vinny saw him. Patrick seemed to be better than most of them at keeping himself under control while on the run.

Firebrand showed up on his own soon afterwards. Just appearing at the dining room table after Vinny blinked. Vinny hardly jumped, he was used to people jumping in and out of reality in seconds.

"Okay what should we play first?" Habit asked. "Ooo we should play Uno!"

"Isn't that a kids game?" Patrick asked leaning across the table and snatching a cupcake with too many sprinkles that Habit had decorated.

"Yep!" Habit agreed grinning at Patrick.

"Let's do it!" Firebrand agreed, his thin smile widening.

"Okay." Patrick sighed sitting back in his chair and taking a bite of the cupcake. He and Vinny shared an exasperated look. How come Habit and Firebrand were immortal and it was the humans who were the mature ones?

Habit shuffled and dealt. Vinny took his cards and looked at them, fairly evenly dispersed with colours. Could have been more pick up cards, but that was fine. He looked up and could tell by the smirk Patrick wasn't even trying to hide where the pick up cards were. Thank goodness it was Habit next to Patrick in the rotation.

Vinny went first, the colour was blue, he put down a five. Firebrand next, then Patrick. As Vinny had expected, Patrick put down two pick-up-two cards and laughed when Habit squawked in protest. Vinny couldn't help but laugh too, but he stopped when Habit put down another pick-two-card making Vinny pick up six.

"Fine." Vinny sighed and picked up the cards. He wished he had the last pick up card, but he didn't so instead he put down three sixes. As Habit and Patrick started arguing and Firebrand laughing at them Vinny smiled. This was looking like it might be a fun day off after all.


	6. Habit is sick :( (emh)

Habit getting sick and Vinny looking after him.

Written for Risingwood on AO3

* * *

Vinny woke up to a noise that had been familiar, and had become unfamiliar. He had always been the mom of the group, when Evan, Jeff, or Alex was sick it was Vinny who looked after them. Instinct pulled him out of bed and towards the pathetic sound of someone getting sick.

It was Habit he found kneeling on the bathroom floor over the toilet groaning pathetically. Vinny sighed and pulled Habit's hair back from his face, he had let it grow too long and it was getting in way.

"Vinny?" Habit whimpered.

"Yep I'm here." Vinny soothed, rubbing Habit's back gently.

"Wha-" Habit started but was cut off for another gag.

"Shhh it's okay." Vinny said smoothly. "Get it all out Habit. You'll feel better after." Habit just whimpered and threw up again. He did it three more times before he went limp against Vinny's chest. "Are you done now?" Vinny asked and Habit nodded, carefully Vinny leaned Habit against the wall. Habit whimpered in protest.

"I'm going to get you a glass of water." Vinny assured softly. "I'll be right back." Habit nodded and leaned his forehead against the wall. Vinny slipped out of the bathroom and got a glass of water from the kitchen, making his way back to the bathroom quickly. "Rinse your mouth out then take small sips." Habit obeyed, rinsing his mouth out and spitting into the toilet before he took small sips.

"Are you going to be able to keep that down?" Vinny asked rubbing Habit's shoulder. Habit nodded and relaxed a little.

"Can you make it to bed?" Vinny asked and Habit tried to sit up, groaning he slumped back against the wall. "Okay, so no." Vinny half laughed, taking the glass out of Habit's hands he put it on the counter. "Hang on Habit." Vinny said gently lifting Habit into his arms. Habit whimpered and clung to Vinny's shoulders. Carefully Vinny carried Habit back to his bedroom and tucked him in. Habit rolled onto his side and curled up.

"I haaate this." Habit groaned. Vinny laughed softly.

"No one likes being sick." Vinny commented. "Hang on." He left and found a bucket, picking up the glass of water again, refilling it and heading back to Habit. He set the glass on the bedside table and the bucket next to the bed.

"I'm a fucking immortal monster." Habit whined. "I'm mankind's bad habit, I can't be sick." Vinny laughed and sat down on the edge of the bed fluffing Habit's hair the way Evan always liked when he was sick. It was the same body after all, maybe the same things would work. Vinny wasn't even sure why he was looking after Habit now except that it was his own habit bred from looking after his friends.

"Ya well you're in a human body and they get sick." Habit groaned and leaned his head slightly into Vinny's hand.

"That feels nice." He mumbled his eyelids drooping closed.

"Go to sleep Habit." Vinny chuckled. "You'll feel better when you wake up." Vinny soothed unsure of what to do. If this was really Evan he would hum to him and keep petting his hair the way he was now, but he wasn't sure that would work with Habit. Different people needed different things. Alex liked being read to from books like Harry potter and Inkheart that reminded him of when his parents were alive. Jeff needed to be handled carefully because he hated feeling weak. Vinny had had to tiptoe around him carefully, looking after him while making it seem like he wasn't.

"Kay." Habit sighed. "I'mmmm not sick though."

"Of course not Habit." Vinny assured smiling slightly. "You're a immortal being with no weaknesses." Habit chuckled softly at the Gravity Falls reference and yawned. Vinny kept stroking Habit's hair until his breathing became even and slow. Then Vinny got up carefully and snuck out of the room.

It was oddly nice to be looking after someone again. To be actually helping, even if it was Habit he was helping. Habit was so much like Evan when he was sick, it was almost the same. At least for the next few days while Habit recovered things would be calm.


	7. Cute in a Dress :) (EMH)

"Vinny I need a hand!" Habit yelped from somewhere upstairs. Vinny sighed and put down his pencil. He had taken to doodling and sketching when he had nothing else to do. Habit had been limiting his internet use recently so he was starting to get creative with pass times.

"I'm coming." Vinny called back glancing down at his paper. It was filled with eyes. They were the hardest part of the face to draw and he had been working on them. Still it made him shiver a little because he couldn't help but find it creepy. Vinny went upstairs. "Where are you?"

"In my bedroom." Habit sounded grumpy and frustrated. Vinny followed his voice fervently hoping whatever had upset Habit was not his fault and Habit wasn't just looking for someone to take it out on.

"What do you nee-" Vinny asked sounding at the doorframe into Habit's room and stopping short when he spotted Habit. Habit was wearing a dress. A black one with a slightly puffy multilayered skirt that seemed to have purple sparkles in it. The dress ended at his knees and Vinny noticed Habit had shaved his legs. Vinny blinked in shocked confusion. His mind refusing to interpret what his eyes were seeing.

"Well don't just stand there." Habit growled at him. "I can't get the zipper done up all the way. I need a hand."

"Okay." Vinny said shaking himself out of his stupor and crossing to Habit. Habit turned his back to Vinny and Vinny did the zipper on the back of the dress up the rest of the way.

"Done?" Habit asked.

"Yep." Vinny said stepping back. Habit swung his arms experimentally testing the constraints of the short sleeves. He bounced laughing a little at the way the dresses skirt flounced. He turned back to Vinny smiling then did a twirl making the skirt flare out so it revealed most of his thighs. "What do you think?" He asked giving a grin that let Vinny know that no matter what he said, Habit thought he was damn cute.

Vinny couldn't seem to make his tongue work. He stuttered something unintelligible and Habit rolled his eyes.

"That cute huh?" Habit asked smiling crookedly. Vinny blushed. "I love this dress. I was kinda considering hopping into a female body to wear it but then I was like. Aw fuck it, I don't have a gender so the body I'm in doesn't need one either. I can wear whatever I want."

"A-are you going out?" Vinny asked.

"Why, do you want to take me out?" Habit asked teasingly. Vinny's blush deepened and he looked away. "nahh." Habit sighed. "I'm not prepared to deal with the reaction a lot of humans have to a biological male in a dress." Habit sauntered over to the mirror and smoothed his hand over the tight fit. "Don't know why though. I think I look cute. Dressed like this in a female body I'd be able to indulge all kinds of bad habits. Honestly I think Evan's hips look better in this than a lot of the girls I've inhabited."

Habit turned his back to the mirror and looked over his shoulder, doing a funny little shimmy that made the skirt swish and accentuated the gentle curve of his hips. The light reflected off the purple sparkles drawing attention down to the well muscled columns of his legs. He was wearing heals Vinny noticed now, and when he walked up behind Habit, he found that now he was only about two inches taller. Habit had turned back to the mirror and he met Vinny's eyes through the reflection.

"You're way too dressed up for just a normal night in." Vinny pointed out hesitantly resting his hands on Habit's shoulders. The cloth of the dress was smooth and the warmth of Habit's body radiated through it so strongly it hardly felt like the cloth was there.

"Oh?" Habit asked smiling curiously at Vinny. "Do you have a suggestion?"

"I would suggest that really cheesy romance movie thing where they turn on music and dance in the house." Vinny chuckled jokingly. "But I have no clue how to dance." Vinny had been joking but the look Habit gave him was completely serious. Vinny fidgeted as Habit appraised him in the mirror and then turned to face him properly.

"I know how." Habit pointed out.

"O-oh, you do?" Vinny stuttered. Habit laughed.

"You don't get to be as old as me without picking up how to dance. Come on I'll teach you." Habit promised, pulling Vinny out of the room and down into the living room where there was more space and a computer.

"O-okay." Vinny agreed when Habit was already on the computer searching youtube for the song he wanted. He seemed to find it quickly because there was music playing. He crossed back to Vinny smiling at him.

"There we go." He purred putting one soft hand on Vinny's shoulder. "Now right hand on my waist, left in mine." Nervously Vinny obeyed, Habit adjusted him slightly then took his hand again.

It must have been a playlist that Habit put on because that song bled into another, into another. It was three before Vinny started to feel like he was getting a handle on what was happening. The fifth was faster and Habit let him take control, spinning Habit out and pulling him in so the skirt twirled and wrapped around Habit's legs when he stopped.

Habit laughed. Vinny was grinning too, caught up in the music. There was a light in Habit's eyes that was very different from the usual manic gleam. Vinny was sure he was matching. They danced for most of the night until Vinny was tired and he knew Habit's feet must be hurting but it only got better.

When they couldn't dance anymore Habit asked Vinny about the romantic movies he had been referencing. Habit didn't watch many movies and had never seen any of them. They ended up curled up on the couch together watching one of them. Habit took off his heels and tucked his feet up under the skirt of his dress in a way that Vinny found oddly adorable. When Habit fell asleep on Vinny's shoulder near the end of the movie he found he didn't mind, they could watch the end in the morning.


	8. Just the Two of Us (MH)

Masky stared down at his gloved hands then got detracted by his breath puffing out in a white cloud. Last time he had been out it was warm, now it wasn't. He didn't even think they lived in a place where it got this cold. Where had Tim taken them? He hoped that Hoody had come too.

Masky looked up and around him. Snow! He laughed and kicked the white powder up watching it fall around him with delight. He loved snow even though he had only experienced it a couple times before. He scooped some of the snow up in his hands. It was a good thing Tim had gone, he hated snow, might as well leave Masky to enjoy it.

A snowball hit Masky on the back of the head and he whipped around. Hoody stood on the other side of clearing smiling at him. Of course, if he had been watching he would be able to tell the change in attitude right away. Masky laughed and packed the snow in his hands into a ball throwing it back at Hoody who dodged. The snowball fight was short lived, but intense. When they finished they were both laughing and puffing, breath crystallizing the chilly air.

Masky held up his hands in defeat finally, Hoody had always had better aim and he was getting sick of getting hit. Hoody ran up to Masky then and threw his arms around Masky's shoulders. Masky hugged back gleefully and pressed their lips together in a long, warm kiss.

"Has Tim already got a motel room?" Masky asked Hoody when they broke the kiss, though they still clung to each other. Hoody nodded rather than answer aloud. "Good, let's go back there to warm up huh? That was fun but now my fingers are frozen." Hoody laughed and nodded again.

He led the way back to Tim's hotel room since Masky had no memory of where it might be. It was nicer than most of the places Tim had stayed recently, Masky wondered why. He sat down on the edge of the bed as Hoody wandered around examining the room. He liked to know every inch of places he stayed, Masky understood that by now.

"Look, this place even has a kettle and a couple of packages of hot chocolate as well as the usual instant coffee and bad tea." Hoody pointed out. His childish excitement making Masky laugh as Hoody put the kettle on

"I still prefer instant coffee but I guess hot chocolate is tradition." Masky said.

"From what I can gather." Hoody agreed smiling crookedly. Five minutes later they were curled up on the bed together, wrapped in blankets and clutching white hotel mugs full of hot chocolate. Neither of them seemed to feel any urge to talk so Masky flipped on the tv and was surprised when the first thing he saw was a Christmas themed ad.

"What date is it?" He asked Hoody curiously.

"December 20th." Hoody answered immediately.

"Almost Christmas." Masky commented sipping his hot chocolate and grimacing slightly at how sweet it was. Hoody was enjoying his though.

"I don't understand Christmas." Hoody stated sounding a little annoyed, he hated not understanding things.

"I don't think it's really supposed to be understood. It's just, like, time to spend with people you love and show them you're grateful to them by giving them gifts or something." Masky tried to explain. "I've never really done Christmas, I mean maybe Tim did back when he had a family."

"I can't remember." Hoody sighed. Masky gave his shoulders a small squeeze. Hoody had accepted his inability to remember anything but he still didn't like it. Masky could remember some of what Brian had been like. He tried to answer Hoody's questions about it but he had no idea what Brian's Christmases had been like. He knew that he and Tim had spent Brian's last one together, right before Brian had been erased to make way for Hoody. But he had no idea what they had done.

That had been the last Christmas Tim had celebrated as far as Masky knew. Maybe it was that holiday grump that had pushed Tim down now. If it was, Masky hoped that Tim would stay gone so that he and Hoody could spend it together.

"Why don't we try to have a Christmas this year?" Masky asked Hoody. "Just the two of us."

"Why not." Hoody agreed with a small smile.

"Okay!" Masky said not trying to hide his enthusiasm, being excited was the best way to get Hoody excited. "First step is try and smuggle a small Christmas tree in here."

"Don't we need decorations?" Hoody asked tilting his head to the side slightly.

"Ya but they don't have to be anything big." Masky explained putting down his mug so he could gesture. "We can make paper chains from just dollar store construction paper, we did that in the hospital once. I remember how. We can make snowflakes out of paper too! And decorations out of pine cones." Hoody smiled watching Masky as he got himself worked up. Masky stopped when he saw Hoody yawn and realized he was tired too. When was the last time Tim has slept? Probably not for ages, sometimes Masky could swear he was on a quest to find out how long he could stay awake without passing out or dying.

"Tomorrow." Hoody promised and Masky nodded.

"Tomorrow." Masky agreed. "Tonight we can just relax, or whatever you want. How long have you been alone this time?" Masky asked softly wrapping his arms around Hoody again. Hoody sighed and put down his, now empty, cup and cuddled close against Masky. He shrugged even though Masky knew Hoody probably remembered exactly how long. He just didn't want to talk about it, Masky didn't press it.

Hoody fell asleep propped against Masky that night. Masky fell asleep quickly after without turning off the tv. Both he and Hoody had trained themselves to wake up at the sound of static because it was usually the first sign of the Operator showing up. There were no disturbances that night though and they woke up late. They let themselves have a leisurely morning and then Masky shooed them both out the door.

They took a trip to the dollar store where they picked up white and coloured paper, string, scissors, tape, some instant noodles and junk food. They dropped that stuff off at the motel room, shocked how long it was rented for (the week as it turned out, maybe Tim had been planning to hide though Christmas), then went for a walk. Hoody led the way to some nearby nature trails partially to pick up his backpack from the place he had been hiding, and partially to look for pinecones. They had decided to make decorations today and get the tree tomorrow.

They found a few pinecones and acorns too which Hoody thought they should take because he liked them and they were kinda shiny, Masky agreed. They held hands as they walked and talked, Hoody catching Masky up on everything he had missed. Hoody found where he had hidden his bag and Masky was even more glad that Tim was gone. Hoody must have been fucking cold, but of course here it wasn't as easy to find place to hide when temperature needed to be worried about as well as shelter.

"Don't worry, I've been doing a little breaking and entering as well." Hoody said when he caught Masky's frown. "There are lots of people who've gone away for the holiday so someone might as well use their houses." Masky relaxed a little and they wandered back to the hotel. It turned out Hoody had done a little theft while he was in those houses because he pulled a couple bottles out of his bag once they were back.

"Someone had too big of booze." Hoody said grinning at Masky. "I figured I could help myself to a little bit of it, I hoped you might be back soon to share it with me." So they drank a little while they worked. Masky showed Hoody how to make the paper chain by cutting strips of coloured paper and making them into interlocking circles with the tape. Like everything else, he picked it up fast. After the chain they started making snowflakes of varying sizes from the white paper. Hoody's were better than Masky's unsurprisingly, neater and more delicate.

They threaded the string through holes in the snowflakes and made loops so that when they had the tree they could hang the snowflakes on it. Then tied string to the acorns and pine cones to do the same. They did pretty well and started making more snowflakes, giving up a few glasses in, when Hoody accidentally cut himself and started giggling. Then they fell into bed together.

The next day they got the tree early in the morning before hardly anyone was around. There was one young woman in the lobby but when she saw what they were doing she laughed and waved them through.

"Merry Christmas." She told them and Masky smiled gratefully at her, Hoody half his behind him. "You're a lot more cheerful today than you were when you first checked in." She commented. "I guess you were just waiting for him huh?"

"Ya." Masky agreed happily. "I was worried he wouldn't make it and I'd be alone for Christmas."

"No wonder you were so mopy then!" She exclaimed sympathetically. "No one should be alone for Christmas. I hope you have a good one now that he's here."

"I'm sure I will." Masky agreed grinning at Hoody who smiled back shyly. "We hope you do too."

They took the tree to their room and set it up using string to secure it to some of the bolted furniture so it wouldn't fall over. Masky found some Christmas carols on youtube and they listened to them as they decorated the tree. Masky sang along and Hoody couldn't seem to stop smiling. When they were done they sat back together and appreciated their work for a little bit. It looked really good for a small tree with only homemade decorations.

"What?" Masky asked when Hoody started laughing suddenly.

"When Tim comes back and doesn't remember what he did over this time, I'm going to make a video saying 'thanks for the Christmas gift'. It'll be so funny to watch him scramble to figure out what sort of sinister thing I mean when there's nothing too sinister there." Masky laughed too, wishing he would be around to see Tim's reaction.

"That's a great idea Hoody." Masky agreed. They watched Christmas movies on tv together that night and Hoody seemed to enjoy them, even though neither of them had any fond memories to attach to the movies. They were building memories now, eating cheap noodles in a motel room together. Masky wasn't even sure if they would exchange presents on Christmas day but maybe they would.

If they did he thought maybe they should leave a present for Tim too, just to get in the spirit. After all in a way he had given both of them a gift, he had left so that Masky and Hoody could spend this holiday together. That was all either of them really wanted anyway. Just some time together to eat cheap food, cuddle on hard beds, and laugh at bad movies and just love being together.


	9. Boys I'm Home

Polyship fic for Habit/Noah/Kevin

* * *

"Hey boys I'm home." Habit yelled from the hall and there was a thump of his bag hitting hall floor. Noah heard the patter of feet he expected were Kevins and then a small ooph. Noah chuckled and put aside his laptop to go say a less enthusiastic hello.

When he came down he saw that Kevin had his arms around Habit and was smiling happily. He was hunched a little so that Habit could wrap his arms around Kevins shoulders comfortably.

"Good to see you, shorty." Noah greeted, grinning crookedly at Habit. "You've been gone for ages I hope you were keeping busy."

"Good to see you too buddy." Habit quipped. "Get over here!" Leaving one arm around Kevin he reached his other one out to Noah, inviting him into the group hug. Kevin smiled at Noah and reached out to him as well. Noah relented and walked over wrapping his arms around both of them. They both fit easily under his chin, he was the tallest of the three but Habit didn't seemed to mind as much as Noah had expected him to.

"I've kept busy. What about you, any news?" Habit asked and Noah resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Habit had taken up the torch of dogging him to get the journal but he understood now that it was for his own good. Habit had his best interest at heart now after all.

"Closer all the time." Noah promised and Habit seemed appeased if still a little impatient.

"And you Kev? Have you been okay?" Habit asked. Noah backed out of the hug, he was never that comfortable with prolonged contact. Habit and Noah let him retreat to a slightly safer distance though. Kevin gave him a lightly worried frown.

"I've been okay." Kevin promised. "The wards you put on the house have been working, Observer hasn't been able to get to me and Firebrand hasn't gotten to Noah either."

"That's good to hear." Habit said laughing softly. "Gotta keep you to safe as I can in all this madness." Habit said ruffling Kevins hair. Kevin laughed but Noah tensed a little. He didn't like having to be protected, being one of the weak ones. Kevin seemed to notice and he slipped away from Habit and instead hugged Noah again.

"He needs us just as much as we need him." Kevin reminded him then glanced back at Habit. "Don't you?" This is why their relationship needed Kevin so much. If Noah had asked Habit if he needed him, Habit would deny it and it would end in a fight. But when Kevin met Habit's eyes with his own big dark ones Habit seemed to soften a little.

"Ya I do." Habit admitted. "You two keep me sane." It wasn't an expression. Noah had met Habit before and he had been totally nuts. It was Kevin who started the process of slowly coaxing Habit back because Noah hadn't believed there was anything human still in Habit. There still wasn't much there, but what was had attached itself to him and Kevin now. Habit needed them as much, if not more than they needed him, and both Noah and Habit needed Kevin.

"I'll put the kettle on for tea." Kevin decided rolling his eyes at Noah when Noah made a small noise of protest. "And coffee for you." He added teasingly and then bustled off to the kitchen.

"I'll take your bag upstairs." Kevin offered, scooping up Habit's knapsack. "You go on in to the kitchen. You look tired, sis you remember about looking after your boy while you were away?"

"I never remember without you two to remind me." Habit admitted a little guiltily then stood on his tiptoes to give Noah a quick peck on the lips. "Thanks." Noah watched Habit follow Kevin and the turned away, stumping up the stairs to their bedroom and leaving Habits bag on the bed. His first instinct was to stay up here for a couple minutes and leave Habit alone with Kevin before going back down, since Kevin had a way of smoothing rumpled feathers and strained nerves.

"Are you coming?" Kevin called from downstairs and Noah abandoned the idea. He got downstairs, Habit was already sitting in his place. Kevin was leaning against the counter, waiting for the coffee to brew and the water to boil. Noah got the sugar and milk out and put them on the table so that they could fix their drinks, then they were ready, then sat in his usual chair. Habit bumped Noah's ankle affectionately with his foot under the table and smiled at him.

"Do you want to tell us about what you did while you were gone?" Kevin asked taking the kettle off the stove as it started to boil and pouring the water into two mugs.

"It's nothing you want to hear about." Habit answered. Noah grimaced, he understand that in Habits world people still needed to die. They all understood it, but it was left outside the house.

"Okay." Kevin agreed quickly. "Are you going to be okay?" He always asked this. As far as Noah could tell Habit never felt guilty for killing someone but who knows. Maybe one of these times he would.

"I'm fine." Habit promised accepting the cup of tea Kevin placed in front of him gratefully. "Don't worry about me."

"He did forget to look after himself while he was away though." Noah put in. Habit wouldn't tell Kevin of his own accord but Kevin would want to know. "So we need to make sure he eats and then heads to bed early."

"Okay." Kevin agreed and started looking through the cupboards to try and find what they could make for dinner. Noah got up to help.

"I'm not a kid." Habit snapped sounding sulky. "I don't need looking after." Noah smirked, now this was a problem that he could fix.

"Oh we know you're not a kid." Noah purred walking back to Habit, his hips swinging a little. "So we still need to welcome you back properly." Noah leaned across the table and kissed Habit deeply, gently pulling his hair.

"Okay." Habit said looking a little dazed when Noah pulled back. "I guess that's alright then."

Noah glanced back and smirked at Kevin, Kevin smirked back. They knew how to get what they wanted out of Habit. Kevin had his puppy-dog eyes, Noah had his flirtations, either way things went the way they wanted it.

"Well now that that's settled." Kevin said turning back to the cupboard. "Is shake'n'bake chicken okay for dinner tonight?"

"Sounds good." Habit agreed quickly and Noah nodded.

"I'll be in charge of vegetables." Noah offered and Habit groaned. "They're good for you." Noah snapped at Habit and Habit growled at him. That had stopped being intimidating a while ago. He glared back. Kevin stepped in to disperse the mounting tension.

"Come on Habit." Kevin said drawing attention away from Noah and to himself. "You know we'll make it up to you tonight." He gave a shy smile and Habit relaxed.

"Fine." Habit grumbled and sat back to sip his tea. He would make dinner tomorrow most likely but for tonight it was his time to rest. Kevin and Noah always looked after him for the first day or so after he got back. It had become part of the rhythm of their domestic life.

As Kevin covered chicken legs with the breading mixture Noah started to cut potatoes. They all quite liked potato wedges with chicken and the vegetable could wait until the last minute. Habit didn't like any vegetables as far as Noah could tell, but he didn't mind peas so they always had a bag of frozen ones in the fridge. They could just be stuck in the microwave at the last minute.

Once the potatoes and the chicken were both in the oven the three of them settled around the table with their drinks. Kevin and Habit chatted about random things and Noah listened. He wasn't the most talkative person but they understood. They made an effort to include him but didn't get grumpy when he gave short answers.

"Oh don't let me forget, I got you both some little gifts while I was away." Habit announced making both Noah and Kevin smile. Habit had started spoiling them both a little. He wasn't good at expressing motion still so his expression often came in little gifts. Things he thought they would like or had mentioned before. Just to prove that he was listening to them both and cared what they said.

"We won't." Kevin promised. No they would just let Habit forget until some time tomorrow. Tonight they didn't want the gifts because they might get distracted from Habit. The last thing that Noah wanted was to get a new video game and let it distract him from making Habit feel welcome, Kevin felt the same way. They needed to make sure their monster knew love and remembered why he still cared.


	10. Storm (TT)

Challenge: Observer x Kevin + storm

* * *

"Shit." Observer swore flinching as a flash of lighting ad a crack of thunder came at the same time. Most of the time he wouldn't have worried about it because getting struck by lightning wouldn't hurt him but he had borrowed Kevin and Kevin would be. "We need to get you inside."

For once Kevin was silent in the back of their, currently shared mind. Observer shrugged and hurried back to the house. As he was getting in the door another even louder crack of thunder happened and he yelped then paused. That fear reaction hadn't come from him, he reached back in his mind to Kevin feeling his fear.

"Oh damn." Observer breathed then slammed the door shut as a bellow of wind tried to force rain into the house. "You're really scared of this aren't you?" A small whimpering sound forced it's way up his throat and he sighed, he had been planning to leave once he got Kevin home but now…

 _Don't go._ Kevin said though the words were in their head and Observer felt more then heard them. _I don't want to be alone right now._

"Okay." Observer agreed. He knew that Kevin was starting to get used to this type of possession. It had started to comfort him to never be alone, not even in his own mind. Recently with everything that had happened to Kevin his mind wasn't completely a safe place to be alone. They both pitied Noah now, having to deal with this alone with his thoughts in his mind.

It was raining hard outside, the drops pounding on the roof but it had been raining when they were outside too and they were soaked. Kevin nudged Observers attention to that fact during a break in the thunder when he was more coherent and Observer nodded.

"We should change into dry clothes?" He asked feeling an affirmative before another clap of thunder came and Kevin kind of closed himself in again. Observer wrapped his consciousness around Kevin's as comfortingly and headed up to Kevins bedroom Finding the fluffiest pair of pj's he could and changing into them because of course Kevin wore matching pj sets. Kevin used to dislike it what Observer changed his clothes but it didn't matter to either of them anymore.

"We should have some tea." Observer suggested already heading back down to the kitchen a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Kevin had buried himself so deep in their shared mind to get away from the thunder he didn't answer, Observer shrugged and went ahead and made a calming tea anyway. Once he had the tea he settled on the couch.

Kevin emitted a distressed feeling when there was another boom and the power went out around them.

"Don't worry." Observer assured out loud. "The laptop is fully charged. We can just watch a movie until the power comes back." He put down their tea on the table in front of the couch and found Kevin's laptop and picked out a Disney movie from Kevins shelf of dvd's. He set it to play and settled back sipping the tea.

Slowly as the first song from Beauty and the Beast started playing Kevin crept forward till they were sharing space equally. They lifted the mug together to sip the tea, which was almost gone now. They hoped the power would come back so they could make more. When the lightning retreated into the distance Observer switched place with Kevin giving him back control of is body.

"You can go now if you want." Kevin told Observer when the power came back on, pausing the movie to go make another cup of tea, black this time. "I'll be okay."

 _Do you want me to stay?_ Observer asked even though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

"Of course I do." Kevin said quickly. "I'd pretty much always rather be with you."

 _Then I'll stay._ Observer agreed, Kevin's mind had become a very comfortable place for him now that Kevin wanted him there instead of fought him. They worked together to keep Observer there now instead of Kevin trying to push Observer out.

Kevin smiled happily and finished brewing their tea. He headed back to the couch and plugged the laptop back in now that the power was back and curled back up so they could finish watching the movie together as rain pounded the outside of the house and the storm raged on, missing it's thunder but none of it's vigor.


	11. Scary (TT)

p style="margin: 2px 0px 1.1em; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""It's horror night!" Firebrand and Observer chorused and then barged back in to the house. They had gone out, Noah had assumed to get groceries or do Tribe things, but now they were back. Observer holding a bag of what looked like DVD's and Firebrand a bag that was obviously full of snacks. /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""Can we not?" Noah groaned, leaning his head back against couch and staring at them. "My entire life is a horror movie, I don't need anymore." /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""Too bad." Firebrand yipped bouncing away to the kitchen, he was always so hyper and upbeat. It reminded Noah of a small dog, it had the same elements of cute and really annoying. A few seconds later he heard the sound of popcorn popping. Observer bustled over and started setting up the movie./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""Busy-body." Noah teased affectionately as he sat up so there would be room for Observer and Firebrand on the couch. If they were insisting, there was no use arguing. Besides the smell of popcorn wafting out of the kitchen was putting Noah in a better mood. He had loved horror before all of this went down, maybe he could get into it again./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;"Firebrand came flouncing back into the room with the popcorn, chips and what looked like, and turned out to be, a giant tub of gummy worms. Noah laughed as Firebrand settled himself triumphantly on the couch and passed Noah the popcorn. Observer set the movie to play and came to sit on Noah's other side so he was sandwiched between the two of them. This wasn't a scary place for him to be like it used to be, now it felt safe./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;"He was glad he felt safe as the movie went on because it scared him. It was a paranormal activity type movie. A few years ago he probably wouldn't have found it scary at all, but now he had lived something like that and it was just bring back lots of bad memories. He ended up grabbing Observer's hand and leaning against Firebrand, who didn't like holding his hands due to the second pair of eyes in them. Firebrand and Observer kept giving him slightly odd looks and then glancing at each other, but Noah ignored them./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""Did that actually scare you?" Observer asked once the movie was over./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""No, fuck off." Noah snapped. Observer and Firebrand looked at each other past him. Observer grinned then vanished. Firebrand laughed and did the same before Noah had registered what had happened. The credits of the movie stopped and there was complete silence. "Guys, that's not funny." Noah said, cursing the way his voice quavered slightly./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;"There was no answer and he got up from the couch, hugging himself and hunching slightly to make himself a smaller target. He looked around the room, he knew that was no use. The two of them could still be in this room and just invisible to him but… but it would make him feel better to look./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""Seriously stop it." Noah ordered, trying to sound firm and unafraid. The effect was ruined when the remote fell off the couch with a small bang and Noah flinched and yelped. He heard the ghost of a laugh that sounded like it came from down the hall and he followed it. "Not funny! Where are you?" He got no answer and his breath started to quicken. He knew that they had to be here somewhere but he felt so alone, he didn't want to be alone./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;"Noah was mostly quiet as he started searching the house. Nearly an hour later he was starting to think that maybe they had just gone, maybe they had left him. He jerked and yelped at the sound of something banging in the next room, then sat down on the edge of their bed. He curled in on himself a little; he didn't want to be alone./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;"Were they mad at him? What had he done? Were things going back to the way they had been now? He wasn't completely sure if he was crying but he knew he was scared. It had been a while since he had been this scared. It had been a long time since he had been alone with no idea of when Observer or Firebrand would get back. He always made them promise they would come back and tell him before they left, this time they hadn't./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""Boo!" Firebrand yelled popping out of thin air. Noah froze as the sudden sound scared him, shaking him down to what he felt like his core. Even though it was silly, when he unfroze a sob broke free from his throat followed quickly by another. /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""Wow, wow." Firebrand said immediately in a soothing voice and walked over to sit next to him. Observer was there on his other side in a flash./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""We didn't realize it had scared you that much." Observer crooned wrapping his arms around Noah's shoulders. "We didn't think it as that scary. We were just trying to make a bit of a joke."/p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""Of course it scared me." Noah whimpered pulling away from Observer a little, he was angry. "Don't you realize that's how my life was!? Now I love you two, but you made my life hell before. I never knew if I was alone, if I was safe. Things were never where I left them, I didn't have any control of anything! I trust you now, but of course I'm scared of going back to that! Of course I'm scared."/p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;"Observer reached out for Noah again, this time Noah leaned into him and started crying a little hysterically. Firebrand wrapped his arms around Noah from the other side. Noah was safe between them again. Crying because he was scared and angry. Neither Observer or Firebrand seemed to know what to say./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""We're idiots." Firebrand said eventually breaking the heavy silence./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""Yes you are fucking idiots!" Noah sniffed. Observer kissed his cheek and Firebrand kissed his hair, he felt a little better. "No more horror movies?"/p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""No more horror movies." Observer agreed./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""But more gummy worms?" Noah asked in a pathetic tone and both Firebrand and Observer laughed softly./p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;" /p  
p style="margin: 1.1em 0px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px; line-height: 28.8px;""Yes more gummy worms." Firebrand promised stroking Noah's hair. /p 


	12. I Don't Want to Break You Anymore (EMH)

Evan woke up on a couch in a house he didn't know. It took him a moment to register that he was alone in his head and he had control of his body. As soon as he realized that he sprung into action rolling of the couch and landing silently on the rug before looking around the room franticly. He was alone. He got up slowly and shifted from one foot to the other clenching and unclenching his fists uncertainly.

This wasn't his house or Vinny's.. or what he had understood as his and Vinny's houses. He remembered that he couldn't even trust his own mind anymore.

" 5." Evan counted hitting the side of his head lightly just to remind himself it wasn't hollow yet. He still had a mind. He decided he would explore the house. It was something to do. He looked around the room and then patted himself down finding a knife and a few pieces of candy in his pocket rolling his eyes at Habit's priorities.

He heard something and stopped listening closely and heard some rustling. Pulling the knife out of his pocket he flipped it open as he walked to the door and opened it slightly. The rake froze when Evan spotted it but Evan relaxed.

"Oh it's just you." He said wrinkling his nose in disgust. The rake gurgled some sort of affirmative. "You're here to keep an eye on me?" the rake nodded. He couldn't speak but he could answer yes or no questions. "Can I explore the house?" Evan asked hoping the rake hadn't been ordered to keep him in this room. If that was the case Evan might fight the rake again just to have a distraction from his thoughts. But the rake shook his head.

"Oh good." Evan sighed and slid out of the room. "Don't worry I won't leave the house." The rake growled at him and sat down watching him closely. When Evan started walking down the hall the rake followed him. "Really you don't have to follow me I won't leave. Habit broke me ages ago I just don't want to think till he get's back. Are there any drugs in the house?" The rake sat down and cocked his head at Evan.

"Of course you don't know." Evan sighed and then walked away the rake followed him again. Evan didn't care he was just looking for a bathroom that might have a drug cabinet. He found it quickly enough, there wasn't much good in the drug cabinet but there was half a bottle of aspirin, which he downed and then sat down on the bathroom floor as nausea set in. He kept the pills down for as long as he could before he threw them up and then passed out on the floor.

When he woke up again he was in a bed. He twitched his fingers and then made a fist checking that he was still in control. That was odd. He stayed still for a couple more minutes expecting to feel Habit re-entering his body at any second but it didn't come. When he was sure it wasn't he tried to sit up and then groaned when his stomach cramped and ended up just curling up on his side.

"I knew you were getting bad." A voice said and Evan glanced up to see a man he didn't recognize standing in the doorway.

"Who are you?" Evan clocked his voice harsh from the stomach acid that had burned his throat. The person cocked his head to the side in a very familiar way.

"Well fuck you to. I change what I'm wearing and you can't recognize me. I'm hurt." Habit said and came farther into the room. Evan didn't move. He stayed perfectly still. He didn't know what Habit was planning but his best guess was that Habit was planning to torture him to what end Evan didn't know but it might be just for fun. Habit picked up a a glass of water from the bedside table and held it out to Evan.

"Drink." He ordered. Eva sat up slowly and reached for the glass he sipped it not bothering to wondering if it was drugged. He drugged himself whenever he could after all so he wouldn't have to think. Habit frowned speculatively at him. The cool water soothed his throat and the ache in his stomach and he drained it quickly then relinquished the glass to Habit before his shaking hands could drop it. Habit kept frowning at Evan and Evan didn't meet his eyes, Habit gripped the back of Evan's hair gently and pulled his head back so his face was angled up towards Habit.

"Where's Vinny?" Evan crocked. Habit made a small hissing noise and Evan flinched slightly.

"He's safe." Habit promised. "He's out of harms way. I just need to look after you right now." Habit said letting go of Evan's hair now that Evan was looking at him.

"Look after me?" Evan asked and Habit nodded sincerely. His expression was sincere. Even looked down and licked his lips nervously. "Vinny could look after me." Evan pointed out nervously. Habit give a annoyed sigh and Evan tensed expecting to be on the other end of one of the treatments Habit had used his hands to preform.

"No he couldn't and you know it." Habit said crossing his arms instead. "He cares about you a lot sure but he's obsessed with answers. He'll think the best way to look after you is to get this war over with as quickly as possible and you need a break now don't you?"

Evan opened his mouth to argue but then though better of it. Habit was probably right after all last time it had been Vinny who insisted they summon Habit again even though Evan hadn't wanted to. Vinny had been convinced it was the right thing to do to find answered and Evan didn't know Vinny to change his mind.

"You need to eat something." Habit said after waiting for a minute to make sure Evan didn't have any objections. "I'll make you something. Don't worry I can actually cook I just don't very often."

"I'm not eating anything you give me." Evan yelped quickly and curled up tighter hugging his stomach and feeling sick for a very different reason. Habit froze and looked at Evan questioningly, looking oddly like a kicked puppy. "You made me eat my daughter." Evan reminded Habit and to his surprise watched a look of regret pass over Habits face, he actually winced.

"You still need to eat." Habit pointed out and Evan looked down stubbornly. Habit slid one finger under Evan's chin and made him look up again studying his face. "Are you up to cooking for yourself." Evan didn't answer, he still felt sick and his stomach was cramping, he felt week to though that might have been from hunger. "Okay what if you come down to the kitchen with me? You can watch me cook to make sure I don't put anything objectionable to you in it?"

"Okay." Evan agreed licking his lips nervously again. He might have been able to walk down to the kitchen but Habit picked Evan up before he could try. Habit didn't have any difficulty doing it, the body he had chosen was much taller and broader then Evan. "Who's body is that." Evan asked, curled nervously in Habit's arms.

"Dose it matter to you?" Habit asked raising his eyebrows a little.

"No." Evan admitted after a minute of trying to make his rusty mind think. "But I feel like it should. It would matter to Vinny."

"Vinny is one of a kind." Habit said setting Evan down in a chair once the got to the kitchen and started collecting ingredients which he put on the table in front of Evan so he could see what they all were. "I've never known anyone else who can just keep caring like Vinny dose. Not caring doesn't make you a bad person Evan, it's normal to be willing to sacrifice strangers for yourself and the people you love. Vinny's some sort of Angel I don't even fucking know."

Evan watched as Habit started cooking and stayed quite. He was trying not to think and if he wasn't thinking he didn't have anything to say. His mind did start working again slowly as he watched Habit cook and then as he ate the plate of food that Habit set in front of him and then sat across from him and at as well.

"Why do you want to look after me?" Evan asked without looking at Habit. He didn't want to look at that monster using another body. "You want to use me. You wanted to break me. That's why you killed-" his words caught in his throat and he ducked his head letting the hair Habit had let grow long fall over his eyes. He heard Habit get up and walk over to his side of the table and felt Habit leaning over him and shrunk down even farther.

"Evan look at me." Habit said. Evan shook his head. Habit put his hand on either side of Evan's head and made Evan look up gently waiting till Evan met his eyes. "I don't want to brake you anymore. This is a war Ev, but I want you to have a life after it. I want you to be okay."

"I'm not okay." Evan said, voice soft and slightly choked with emotion. There was no use lying or acting like he did for Vinny. Habit had been in his head, he knew what a mess it was.

"I know you aren't." Habit sighed and let go od Evan, take a step back. "But you will be. I'll look after you. There will be more blood on this road but I'll look after you, and Vinny."

"You promise?" Evan asked, Habit kept his word for all his faults.

"I promise. I'm not a idiot, Vinny's all you have left to fight for and I need you fighting. There's still a war to win and the sooner we win it the sooner you and Vinny can get back to your lives."

"Then let's go." Evan said trying to push himself up, Habit caught him when he stumbled.

"No, you're the priority right now. Winning the war won't mean anything to you or Vinny if you're broken by the end of it. We need to look after you for now, don't worry about anything else, I've been inside your head remember? It's a mess and we need to look after you, otherwise you won't be able to live with yourself after this even though it's all my fault."

"You're fault?" Evan asked softly. He and Habit had become almost inseparable in his mind. He couldn't think of Habit hurting people without thinking of himself having done it.

"Yes my fault." Habit promised. "None of this is your fault Evan, you didn't do anything wrong. You're a good person Ev, I'm the monster."

Evan was so relieved that he started crying. He leaned his head against Habit's chest and clung to him like he might have a teddy bear when he was a child. Habit made small comforting and hushing noises as Evan wept and stroked his hair. Evan wasn't one for tears but so much had happened and he didn't know how else to deal with it. Habit seemed to understand.


	13. I Hate You Less (TT)

Requested by a anon on tumblr: noahXfirebrandXobserver fluff, playing board games, maybe.

* * *

"We're all home for once." Noah pointed out chuckling gathering Firebrand and Observer into a group hug.

"Seems we are." Observer said kissing Noah's cheek.

"We should do something." Noah suggested kicking his backpack out of the way, he had just gotten back from a class.

"Don't you have studying to do?" Observer asked side eyeing Noah.

"None I can't do later." Noah promised.

"Why homework you're a human you're just gonna die anyway. Let's play board games." Firebrand yipped from somewhere deeper inside the house where he had wondered off to.

"So bored games are a better thing to do with my brief human existence?" Noah asked laughing and going looking for Firebrand. Observer didn't follow, he was going into the kitchen to make himself tea. Surprise surprise. Though it had been a surprise to Noah at first that Observer liked tea now it was common place.

"Yes!" Firebrand yelled as Noah came around the corner to see Firebrand already listing a stack of board games down from the top shelf of some cabinet.

"You don't have to yell I'm right here." Noah said sighing.

"Okay then what game?" Firebrand asked sorting through them and putting the two player games back on the shelf. One of the downsides of this three way relationship is they never got to play checkers, Noah liked checkers. Observer complained about the lack of chess.

"Fuck!" Firebrand swore as he dropped the chess board on his foot.

"Nothing better be broken!" Observer yelled from the kitchen making Noah laugh.

"No nothings broken." He called back.

"And thanks for caring fucker!" Firebrand called.

"You're very welcome darling." Observer said sarcastically, walking into the room, setting his tea down on the table and walking back out. "If we play monopoly we'll hate each other by bed time." He added over his shoulder.

"Good let's play monopoly." Firebrand laughed and started setting up the bored.

"Okay but I'm the banker I don't trust either of you bankers not to stack things in your favour." Noah said grabbing the dog play piece. They never fought over those, that was something.

"Like we trust you not to?" Firebrand teased.

"Yes we do." Observer said walking back into the room with to mixed drinks handing one to Noah and one to Firebrand, they both preferred alcohol to tea any day. "And if he cheats we can… punish him later." Observer said smirking and Noah felt a shiver run up his spine, from the two of them that could mean any number of things.

Observer took the top hat and Firebrand took the car and they started playing. Well at least no one could accuse Noah of cheating because he spent most of the game loosing. He figured it wasn't fair playing against two people who had at least some form of omnipotence or inhuman sense that Noah didn't understand. It was Firebrand and Observer who ended up fighting until near the end of the game when they were tying Noah knocked the bored off the table on purpose.

"Why'd you do that!?" Observer and Firebrand yelled at Noah in unison then scowled at each other.

"You to need to stop fighting. We need to invest in some cooperative games." Noah said getting up to start cleaning up the playing pieces he had scattered. "We need to play something silly like snakes and ladders or give up on board games and play rock band. I think that's the better idea."

"Okay we can play rock band as long as you sing." Observer told Noah.

"And I get to play drums." Firebrand added. Neither of them got up to help Noah pick up the pieces. That was fair, he had been the one to knock them off even if it was to stop them fighting.

"Okay sounds good." Noah said.

"I still hate you." Observer said to Firebrand.

"No you don't." Noah objected before they could start fighting.

"I do! I just hate you two less then I hate everyone else." Observer insisted crossing his arms petulantly.

"Awwwww I hate you less to you big suck." Firebrand said reaching over the table to ruffle Observers hair.

"Blah." Observer sounded sticking his tongue out at Firebrand making both him and Noah laugh. Rock band would go better, they didn't fight during that game.


	14. You Haven't Been Ruined (TT)

"Where are you?" Noah called, Firebrand was around here somewhere in the house. When he didn't get a answer he paused for a moment longer and heard the shower going. Noah sighed and walked to the kitchen, Firebrand would use all the hot water again no doubt.

The kitchen was a bit closer to the washroom and now Noah could hear another sound under the water. A whimper not quickly enough repressed and Noah was jogging to the bathroom.

"Are you okay in there?" He asked knocking gently. Another small whimper from the other side of the door. "I'm coming in."

"Don't I'm trying to shower." Firebrand objected but there was a hitch to his voice that Noah recognized from his own cries.

"Nothing I haven't seen before." Noah said and walked into the bathroom. Firebrand was sitting on the ground next to the shower in his underwear and Noah had been right he was crying. Noah winced slightly when he saw the burns of Firebrands body as he always did. Firebrand gave another wet sob and covered his face with his hands.

"Go away." He said thickly. "I don't want you to look at me and you don't want to look at me either I know it. I'm disgusting." Firebrand said curling up a little tighter.

"What? No!" Noah objected walking over to Firebrand.

"Don't lie." Firebrand snapped. "You flinch every time you look at me."

"No, no." Noah soothed sitting down next to Firebrand. "Not for the reason you think."

"Then why?" Firebrand snapped without uncovering his face. Noah leaned over and kissed on of the worse burn scars on Firebrands shoulder, then a smaller one on his neck.

"Because they look so painful." Noah said wrapping on arm around Firebrands shoulders and kissing the back of one hand that was still covering Firebrands face. "And I don't like thinking about you being in pain." Firebrand leaned against Noah and Noah kissed his forehead, then when he uncovered his face his ruined lips, which never quite covered his teeth anymore.

"You're the good looking one." Firebrand sighed. "I've been ruined."

"No you haven't god damn it!" Noah objected. "I swear to god I will kiss every burn on your body if I have to, to convince you you're not."

"That'll take a while." Firebrand chuckled and sniffed. "I have a lot of burns, I have more burns then skin."

"I know but I will sit here and fucking do it if I have to." Noah threatened and Firebrand laughed finally.

"Why don't you just shower with me so I can look at you instead of having to look at myself?" Firebrand said smiling thinly, starting to get back to his old self.

"Okay I can do that." Noah agreed pulling his shirt over his head. "Now lets get in before you let all the hot water run out without getting clean."


	15. Not Drinking Alone for Once (TT)

Reaquested by HABITs_little_rabbit and a anon on AO3: some Noah/Habit

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Noah ran, he wasn't sure where he was running to only that Observer was in his house again and he wasn't safe. He didn't know where he was going, just away but that was harder then it sounded cause Observer seemed to be everywhere he turned laughing at him. Then he opened a door and stumbled through it. It slammed shut behind him on it's own and there was silence, from the confusion of sound and colour to quite and a beige carpet.

"Hey Noah. How're you doing?" A chipper voice asked and Noah looked up from the floor to see Evan, or Habit sitting on a couch middle of the room. "Have a seat." Habit offered gesturing to a arm chair across from him. Noah walked over and slumped into the chair rubbing his face tiredly.

"Great what did I do to get both Observer and you involved?" Noah asked tiredly.

"Hey I got you away from him didn't I?" Habit asked pointing back towards the door Noah had come through. "I told you to think of this as a nice little vacation spot." Habit said leaning back against the couch cushions and grinning widely at Noah.

"What do you want Habit?" Noah snapped, he was in no mood for games he just wanted all if these monsters to leave him alone.

"Nothing actually." Habit said sincerely. "I want you to get the journal as much as the next guy but I don't like Observers methods so I'm staging a intervention. He can't get in here so your safe."

"Safe from him maybe." Noah pointed out eyeing Habit suspiciously.

"Not trusting me is for the best." Habit agreed. "But I'm not going to hurt you, when have I ever tried to hurt you?"

"You threatened to cut my left arm." Noah objected indignantly.

"Threatened to, didn't actually try to. There's a big difference there." Habit pointed out. "You should know that, you spend a lot of time yelling meaningless threats"

"Okay so you've never tried to hurt me." Noah allowed "But that doesn't mean you won't in future. I;ve seen you hurt tones of people on the videos."

"It's true, but for now I don't want to hurt you so you can relax, you'll be safe with me."

"I guess as safe as I am anywhere since whoever feels like it can come waltzing into my house." Noah said slumping tiredly against one armrest.

"That's the spirit." Habit said, chipper as always. Sometimes Noah couldn't wait till he became firebrand, all of these monsters seemed so happy all the time.

"Where's Vinny?" Noah asked, he hadn't heard anything from Vinny in a long time. Habit gave a sudden annoyed hiss at the mention of Vinny.

"He's alive." Habit said coldly. "Kinda in a prolonged time out for not listening to me"

"Oh." Noah sounded, unsure how else to respond because asking for more detail didn't seem like a safe choice.

"I knew you were a smart one." Habit said smugly

"Thanks." Noah said sarcasticly.

"You're welcome." Habit responded anyway and then they lapsed into a silence that Noah wasn't sure was awkward or comfortable. Habit certainly didn't seem to mind though he started humming to himself. Noah recognized the song and slowly, quietly started humming along as well.

When Habit burst out with the lyrics Noah laughed and started singing as well. Habit seemed to get really excited and jumped up off the couch and grabbed Noah's wrists dragging him up as well as he started dancing to the beat that was now in both of their heads but not outside them. Noah tried to join in dancing but really just broke down laughing at how funny and enthusiastic Habit's dancing was.

Noah collapsed back into the arm chair but Habit just shot him a grin and kept going, obviously putting on a bit of a show now and making Noah laugh even harder. Habit held the last note of the song longer then it was meant to go for and then collapsed back onto the couch cackling breathlessly while Noah applauded still laughing.

"After all this you still have a sense of humor." Habit chuckled looking at Noah intently. "I knew I was right about you, you're a strong one. You might actually win this game." Noah didn't know what to say so he looked down letting Habit stare at him for another long minute. Suddenly he clapped his hands and jumped up of the couch striding out of the room with purpose. Noah watched him in confusion but didn't follow.

"Let's do some of your favourite thing." Habit laughed walking back into the room with a twelve pack off beer and tossing one to Noah. Flopping back down on the couch, set the box of beer on the ground between them and he grabbed one for himself. They snapped the tabs on the beers at the same time and did a cheers and chugging half of the beer.

A few beers later they started on a game of never have I ever which Habit was loosing spectacularly though surprisingly Noah was doing a fair amount of drinking to. Still it was obvious that Habit was drinking way more then Noah.

"This game isn't fair." Habit groaned leaning his head back against the couch. "I've lived a lot longer then you of course I've done more shit!"

"Okay then you big baby what do you want to do?" Noah laughed.

"How 'bout truth or dare?" Habit asked after thinking for a moment.

"Okay." Noah conceded. "But I reserve the right to not do all of your dares because I bet you think of some reeeaally bad ones."

"Okay if you don't want to do the dare you just gotta drink. Sound fair?" Noah nodded. "Okay want me to start?"

"Sure, dare." Noah said. "Though we're almost out of beer." He pointed out kicking the nearly empty box.

"I'll get something else if we run out." Habit said waving the concern away. And then tapping his chin as he though, when he got it he looked at Noah and smirked. "Okay I got it." He said leaning over towards Noah close enough that Noah could smell the alcohol on his breath, not that he was probably much better. Even though he had developed a tolerance for alcohol recently it didn't mean his breath had. "I dare you to kiss me."

"What?" Noah asked barely processing the dare.

"Are you going to forfeit on the first dare?" Habit chuckled challengingly. Noah shook his head and leaned forward as well till their lips collided, Habit cupped the back of Noah's head with one hand to stop him pulling away to quickly. Habit was a good kisser and Noah found himself getting lost in the contact, his eyes sliding shut as their lips moved together.

When Habit slid onto Noah's lap Noah grabbed his hips to pull him closer then ran his hands through Habit's hair which was longer then his own and soft as any girls. Truth or dare was completely forgotten.


End file.
